Overview

Ratings & Reviews

Special Features

The Making Of Behind The Candelabra - explore the wild and wonderful legacy of Liberace with several cast and crew members including Douglas and Damon.

Synopsis

Behind the CandelabraFilmmaker Steven Soderbergh explores the relationship between flamboyant pianist Liberace (played by Michael Douglas) and his long-term partner, Scott Thorson (Matt Damon), in this Warner Bros. biopic based on Thorson's best-selling memoirs. An pianist with a playful flair for showmanship, Liberace was a beloved entertainer when, in the summer of 1977, he began a five-year love affair with the much-younger Thorson. Though on the surface the pair couldn't have seemed more different, the y quickly established an intimate bond that would take Thorson on a wild ride through the glamorous world of showbusiness while revealing a side of his talented older lover that few had glimpsed before. Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd, Scott Backula, and Debbie Reynolds co-star. A considerable hit when it premiered on HBO in May of 2013, Behind the Candelabra impressed at the 2013 Emmy Awards by taking home trophies for Best Mini-Series or TV Movie, Best Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie (Michael Douglas), and Best Directing, Mini-Series or TV Movie. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Overall Customer Rating

Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are amazing!

October 23, 2016

The cast is very solid. Matt Damon embodies the role of Scott Thorson well - a young apparently bisexual man who has been tossed from foster home to foster home while he does odd jobs (he is 17 years old) tending to animals. In a gay bar he meets Bob Black (Scott Bakula) who takes Scott to a Liberace concert (his first exposure to the mega-star) and to meet Liberace afterwards. There is tension in the air with Liberace's current paramour and performing partner Billy Leatherwood (Cheyenne Jackson) and we soon discover that Liberace (impeccably played by Michael Douglas) only keeps his 'boys' around for a while before his manager Seymour (Dan Ackroyd) gets rid of them with a check. Liberace and Scott find common ground in being needy people without confidants and soon Scott becomes Liberace's next lover. All goes swimmingly until Liberace sees himself on a TV show and sees how aged he has become. He engages plastic surgeon Dr. Jack Startz (Rob Lowe in a very fine performance) to perform a youthful face lift and at the same time convinces Scott to undergo plastic surgery to make him look more like Liberace! And here begins the downfall: Dr. Startz prescribes pain meds to Scott who becomes addicted and moves into heavier drugs, and his behavior, along with Liberace's need for a 'new face' (Boyd Holbrook), signals the breakup of a 6 year relationship - the best relationship either has ever had.